House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the guest speaker Friday night at Harvard's Institute of Politics, where former White House adviser David Gergen quizzed her about everything from the war in Afghanistan to health care reform . . .
On Afghanistan:
"This is what is clear: It would be very hard to get many Democratic votes to support a big increase in troops in Afghanistan.
Of all the things I have done this year as speaker with a Democratic president -- the recovery package . . . the budget . . . health care . . . the hardest of them all was passing the supplemental funding for Afghanistan and Iraq, the hardest sell I had with the members.
From September 2001 until the president came into office, there was no plan in Afghanistan. We went in, we routed the Taliban, but we did not defeat them. They headed to the hills and then they came back.
It's about the security of the American people, how we can provide for that security, but in a way that has a beginning, a middle and an end to how we bring our troops home."
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http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/16/nancy-pelosi-abortion-debate-not-over-afghanistan-vote-harder/